Sunday, 13 April 2014

Medlar and cinnamon upside down cake

This week’s bake turned into a bit of a voyage of discovery
that all commenced one lunch time as I passed a Mediterranean greengrocers and
saw a box of fruit labelled ‘medlars’. I
suspected they weren’t medlars because the medlars I’d seen were like oversized
rosehips. So I bought some and then went
off to do my research (I know that’s the wrong way round – I should have
researched first, but that’s just not the way I roll).

I googled medlars and site after site came up with the
rosehip-looking type. Dead end after
dead end. So I put my faith in google; I
typed “soft fruit medlars that look a bit like apricots” and bingo! I asked and the internet delivered. What I had were loquats aka Japanese medlars aka Japanese/Chinese plums or biwa if you prefer. It seems to be the fruit of a thousand names!

Mine felt like ripe apricots and the skin peeled off easily
without needing to dip the fruit in boiling water. For this cake I probably could have left the
skin on as it’s very thin but I didn’t want to risk it. The stone comes out easily but I also peeled
away the thin white papery layer around it.

They have a beautiful flavour and were really juicy. Imagine a less gingery mango with elements of
orange, peach and apricot and you’d be getting close. Fruity and sweet at first but finishing with
a sharper acidic flavour I really fell for them in a big way and wished I’d
come across them sooner.

This upside down cake contains cinnamon and vanilla, two spices
that work well with most fruits. You
could serve this cake at room temperature for afternoon tea, or hot with custard
or ice cream for dessert.

Use an all-in-one liner for a 20cm round springform tin. If you don’t have a liner, wrap the outside
of the tin in foil as you don’t want anything to leak during baking.

Start by making the base: Place the butter in the cake tin
and put into the oven for about 3 minutes or until it has just melted (but isn’t
burned or bubbling).

Stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Arrange the fruit into the butter mix and put the tin to one
side. I put my medlars cut side down so
they sat flush to the tin.

Now make the sponge: beat the butter and sugar until pale
and whippy. Don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat in the eggs one at a time followed by the additional
white and vanilla.

Stir in the flour, baking powder and milk and mix until the
batter is smooth and well combined.

Spoon over the fruit taking care not to disturb it.

For upside down cakes it’s important that the cake doesn’t ‘dome’
too much whilst baking because, when you turn it out, this will become the
bottom. I manage this by making a dip in
the centre and building up the batter around the edge of the cake – during baking
this usually settles out to an even layer.

Stand the cake tin on a tray in case the caramel bubbles up
and bake for approximately 1 hour but check after 40 minutes to ensure the top
isn’t browning too much. If it is,
loosely cover it with foil and continue to bake until a skewer inserted into
the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 30mins-1hour in the tin before turning out
and leaving to cool completely. If you’re
serving for a dessert turn out after about 10 minutes cooling time.

I love you make this cake with madler fruit, we call here Nísperos and I know them from my childhood, but this year like I said in my post don't was a nice year for fruits! I love you make this lovely cake with nísperos, and I put you a link here if you want see what talk about medler fruithttp://spanishfood.about.com/od/seasonalspanishfoods/a/nisperos-loquats.htm

I've never heard of medlars either! I might have to hunt them down as this looks like a brilliant cake. I've recently moved and the local supermarket has loads of weird and wonderful fruit and veg that I've never heard of, you've inspired me to check them out and try something different!

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